I’m checking out her company Picky Bars; and the company who sponsors her, Oiselle. The Oiselle brand seems geared to elite women runners, or women with the body type of elite women runners. For example, their running bras don’t provide support for anyone over a C cup (that’s me). If you’re searching for a great sports bra and you’ve got some great body to work with, check out Moving Comfort’s Fiona model, I love it.

I’ve recently been struggling with my spending choices – the Bangladesh factory collapse reminds me why I avoid consumption of mass-made goods as much as possible. Yet, a lot of my running gear, including specialized running fuels, are part of that mass-made industry. I’m still struggling with that one – if you have insights or recommendations, hit me up in the comments.

I am contacting Picky Bars for the details on where they buy the ingredients for their gluten-free, dairy-free, preservative-free bars, I’ll let you know what I hear. The ingredient list includes which ingredients are certified organic (it’s most of them), but as my good friend Megan recently reminded me – the organic certification does not indicate anything about the labor practices of a farm, orchard, or other food-producing entity.

Oiselle puts these details right out there on their FAQ page:
“Where is your apparel made?
Everything you see on our website was designed and tested by real women athletes in Seattle Washington. 80% of the spring 2013 line is USA made! The other 20% is responsibly manufactured elsewhere. Each product page will tell you where that particular product was made.”
My brief shopping experience brought up several pairs of running shorts made in china and all the t-shirts I clicked on made in the usa. Neither ensures great labor practices, but the usa is a better bet.

I love your blogs! I’ve been thinking more and more that we’re in the fourth wave feminism (if it must have a name). To me, that means back to accepting the women and men who choose to make homemaker their career; but also to equalizing the workplace where fathers can be free to negotiate for a flexible schedule that allows a working parent to make *some* of the school plays and such. I think that kids should learn sometimes work takes precedence within an adult schedule – that’s not such a bad thing – but the parent shouldn’t always have to choose between career and family, either. Some careers may not be as flexible as others, but they don’t all have to be as rigid as they are now, either.

I am about 75 pages into Lean In and just hit a point where I wanted to digest what I’ve gotten before moving on. How about you – did you read it yet?